I would get frustrated and start looking for greener pastures. After doing this for the first several years, I realized this approach was better as a contractor than a full time employee. I did contracting for several more years, until I found a company that just "sucked less" than the others I'd worked for.
One thing you will learn as you have more experience: All companies suck to work for (unless you started it yourself). Some just suck less than others. Try to find one that you can at least tolerate the suckage. When I get bummed out about idiotic co-workers, management that doesn't know what the hell they're doing (example: no backup generators for a data center with $millions in equipment), I just close my eyes and try to meditate on the six figure salary and five figure annual bonus. That usually makes me forget how much it might suck at the time. Oh, and the fact that I still get to play architect and design some cool systems.
Good luck!
I finally realized last year that my dream job is having a bunch of kids and helping them grow into adults. In a way, it's not so different from Gary's dream job.
could you comment on how things have changed for you over the years? I matched your dream job with patio11's comment : "I think I've got my dream job, but three years ago I said the same thing about the last job, and three years prior I said the same thing about the job before that, so your guess is as good as mine what my dream job will be three years from now."
Shortly after, I participated in a program that paired me with a public school teacher. I liked working with the kids, but I felt like I was out of my depth (didn't have proper training to work in the classroom) and the teacher didn't like me personally (my politics weren't acceptable to her.) Here, I made my second big shift: I realized I liked teaching, but I didn't like schools, either in terms of their structure or the prevailing politics.
I ended up burned out, left grad school, and got a low-paying job teaching in an aerospace museum. Here, I had solid training, and nobody ever got on my case about my political views. At first I was disappointed that I wasn't using the skills I'd developed in grad school, and I began to envision some sort of software/systems engineering position as my dream job (my wife is a systems engineer.) Over time, I realized I didn't really care that much about the specific math or engineering stuff I'd done, I just wanted to do something worthwhile, and inspiring future generations was just as worthwhile as building airplanes.
It was in this context that my wife and I started talking seriously about having kids. Over the course of many months, we'd discussed all sorts of strategies for avoiding child care -- me working 4 10's with her part time, or both of us working 3 11's on alternating days, or all sorts of crazy schemes. Eventually I realized: when we had this discussion, she was really enthusiastic about her career, while I was really enthusiastic about kids. One of us made the suggestion that she could work full time and I could watch the kids, teach them, and be a "domestic engineer" (that is, create processes and systems to run the household), and I realized we'd just described my dream job.
So for me, it was a process of convergence -- several steps leading me closer to the realization that this is what I want to do with my life. I don't think it'll change in the same way patio11's dream job changes every 3 years (but good call on citing that comment; it was what originally inspired me to respond.)
Found this on "BetterExplained" a while back. It's about 3 minutes and well worth it:
http://www.neticons.net/music_life/
I love the last line...
(Linux, FF 3.5.9)
On the one hand - the professional slacker lifestyle is pretty brilliant: youu sleep when you're tired, work on whatever you like, and you can finally get that stack of books read.
On the other hand - the lifestyle can be somewhat isolating, especially so when you find that everyone else is asleep when you're awake. It becomes too easy to lose yourself in tangents, endlessly exploring to eternal infecundity.
So - while I agree - it is a great lifestyle - I make one small addendum: to be "magically unemployed" along with two or three other persons whose interests all overlap.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket, one dream job, one relationship. Treat your job as a good friend, don't become too emotionally involved with it. Don't just get a paycheck from your job - if you do, you are underpaid. Do things outside of work. If you work with computers all day and you don't do other stuff that does not involve computers, consider new hobbies that pertain to interests. For example, if you like sexy iPhone app UIs like on http://wellplacedpixels.com, consider going to an art gallery with friends to see what kind of art is out there and why you like certain pieces of art.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8
1:10 : The US Department of Labor estimates that today's learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38
1:16 : 1 in 4 workers has been with their current employer for less than a year. 1 in 2 has been there less than five years
Pretty much sums it up!
